Sims 2The following scenarios are developed for the game The Sims 2 Mobile. The Sims is a simulation game which focuses an the daily activities of virtual characters called “Sims”.
All scenarios focus on the need of social contact which can be satisfied by communication with other avatars. The players have to take care of the Sim’s needs like eating, sleeping or the need of social contact. The needs are displayed by the
“Needbar” with meters on the bottom
of the screen.
In this example, the length of a phone call is used to reload the soicialize meter of the “Needbar”. The player is forced to make a call with a specific duration to satisfy the Sim.
As a metaphor for communication, Bluetooth can be used to detect other services, devices or even other possible players running the same application on their devices. In this example the socialize meter is filled with the number of Bluetooth devices discovered by the aplication. The Player has to search areas of high Bluetooth activity to accomplish the quest.
As a further development of the Bluetooth-proximity approach, the concept of the strategy Game Tit for Tat is used in the following scenario. Users perform a handshake via Bluetooth. They communicate with keystrokes. Only if a player gets a reply from the partner the socialize meter is reloaded.
In this scenario the player has to find a team-mate in the physical world to perform the game tasks.
Through the use of facial recognition systems, smiling faces can be identified within an image. It is even possible to read the degree of the happiness detected on a face. In a conversation a smiling face gives positive feedback. In this scenario users have to hunt for smiling faces. If a smiling face is detected the socialize meter is filled with the analyzed happiness value.
In order to gain some feedback about the potential, a user study was realized in public. To capture a smiling face is sometimes very difficult. Therefore the player has to invent additional tactics to achieve this goal.